In Genesis 48:11, Jacob says to his son Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.” So Jacob put all this down to God’s doing, that it was God who’d allowed Joseph to be whisked off to Egypt, God who’d allowed Joseph to marry an Egyptian lady and have two half Egyptian children, and God who’d brought the family together again, with these two boys included.
In the form of a blessing, then, Jacob wanted to get across to Joseph that God was behind all that had happened to their family to bring them to this point – and perhaps a very surprising point too, because in his blessing Jacob makes clear that God would now be continuing his plan for all humanity through Joseph’s half Egyptian sons.
Jacob starts his blessing, therefore, with this in mind, when he says to Joseph in verse 15, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked” – to strike the point home that God began a plan through Abraham and Isaac, that became so real to them it was like they were “walking” with God every day. And the same for Jacob too, when he speaks next of “God who has been my Shepherd all my life to this day.”
This is what God had wanted all three men to experience, that they’d know he was with them every day, guiding and shepherding them, which In Jacob’s experience, verse 16, also included “the Angel who has delivered me from all harm.” The messes Jacob had got into – whether his fault or the conniving of others – had made it obvious to Jacob by now that “the Angel” had got him through all of them.
But why did Jacob switch from “God” to “the Angel”? Well, this is the point where Jacob speaks of being protected from harm. He can look back on a life of being rescued again and again, and here he is near the end of his life, himself and his family fully restored. Which rather gives the game away as to who the Angel might be. because who’s the one in Scripture through whom we’re rescued and restored?
Is Jacob then including Jesus in his blessing, to get the point across from his own experience that it’s through Jesus rescuing and restoring that God is fulfilling the plan he began with Abraham and Isaac? If so, then Jacob takes all that he’s just said and then says, “may he (God and Angel) bless these boys,” so that God’s plan of rescuing and restoring all humanity through Jesus will continue through them. But strangely this would involve “A switching of hands”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 